Roku 4k stick vs express 4k?

JimS

Senior Member
So many variations of this or at least how they are described by different sellers. Have some non-express 4k units and looking for one more. Want the user interface to be the same. See Lowes has the Express 4K+ on sale for $30 and that it has the voice input (earlier express did not and that's a nice feature we want).
 
I would personally not suggest using a wireless stick for 4k media and utilize Ethernet instead.

The GUIs these days are mostly advertisements for other services. I would stick with Roku if you comfortable with it.
 
Problem is these don't have wired adapters for the lower end Rokus like the firesticks do. The higher end Roku do but it's a pretty big price jump. I bought wired adapters for the firesticks. But they don't have a spectrum ap. Apparently Roku is the only one that does so switching over to that. So the isnt Roku or something else. It's between models of Roku.

So I previously got their "Streaming stick 4k" which is model 3820.

For a 3rd tv I forgot about in the detached garage I need one more. The local Walmart didn't have that model but had the "Express 4K+" model 3941. According to the chart in the store they are very similar - the only difference noted is range of wifi (which isn't an issue for that spot). Wondering what other differences they may have.

Just did a quick search and found the 3941 does support USB ethernet port similar to how the firestick does it. Interesting... Wonder if the firestick adapter might work? The Roku page that has details has links to devices they say are compatible. Just clicked on one and the Amazon listing has "Not Compatible with Roku Device" in bold letters in the title - so I guess being a little confused is rampant and I am not the only one.

Main thing is that the UI operation and layout is the same - which I think is true.
 
One of the power supplies recommended by Roku says it works for both so I may give my firestick adapter a try with the 3941.
The wired version of Roku isn't a lot more. There is a $60 version although I haven't looked at the processor specs or reviews.
 
The wiki page here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku

shows the 3820 and 3941 have the same processor, ram, etc. The only differences are the 3941 attaches to the TV with a cable, has a wired adapter option, USB port is slightly different (which I don't ever expect to use) and the 3941 lacks Dolby vision (something I seriously doubt I will miss). Looks like the 3941 will work just fine for me along with the 3820s I already have.
 
Get the wired Roku. I have three models in a box somewhere and the wired one was far superior. Strangely enough my Roku+ would not talk to my ASUS router on 5GHz band despite both being close to the ceiling about 10' apart. The WiFi units will downshift the resolution without warning if any lack of bandwidth capability is detected.

After moving to an apartment I have two Sony TVs that have all the apps built into them and don't use any Roku devices now. I have no way of getting wiring to the TV sets from the fibre optics router so I am forced to use WiFi. 1K or 2K bandwidth on the 55" bedroom TV is not too bad but on the main 75" TV the 4K is nice. At the higher bandwidths it can be hard to tell what you end up getting but I think it is the sound that mainly suffers, missing the Atmos signals and flatter sound. 4K is no problem if I would move my PVR (DVR) back under the TV set and let the PVR cache the signals instead of the TV.
 
So far the wireless seems to be working well for Rokus. Had trouble with Firesticks and got wired adapters for them which helped quite a bit. Interesting thing is the wired adapters are limited to 100M which is at least theoretically slower than wifi (under good conditions) so I have read mixed comments about using wired or wireless. Will probably not worry about it unless I start having some issues. Would be interesting to find some data on range and reliability of wifi for Firestick and Roku compared.
 
I have known about 3 Firesticks with other people and they all had to be rebooted once per night due to overheating.
 
Here is a file called Dolby Vision Chameleon to test.

I put it on Microsoft Drive. It is 610 Mb.

DolbyVision

You have to download the file then play back the file.

Here had issues with HDR first disabling it then re enabling it as I can adjust it now on the playback device.
 
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